Re: Kangaroo
Court

: I understand that a "kangaroo court" is
a sham or mock trial. My Webster Collegiate lists the phrase as first appearing
in 1853. I found a web reference that speculates the phrase may be connected to the 1840s gold rush in California.
Did "kangaroo court" originate in the gold rush era to describe the ad hoc process
of resolving "claim jumping" charges? For example, is kangaroo court a humorous
allusion for a "jumping court" to resolve "claim jumping" charges, or is the reference
more an indication of the helter-skelter nature of the proceeding?

Here's all
I know about kangaroo court:

KANGAROO COURT - There's a difference of opinion
between my two sources concerning whether this phrase is Australian in origin.
From the "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" by William and Mary Morris
(HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 1977): "Kangaroo court is an illegal mock
or sham court, usually set up by inmates of a prison to levy fines and punishments
on other inmates who violate the 'code.' Such organizations usually very informal
in nature, exist in most large prisons and are even encouraged by some wardens
as a useful device for maintaining order. The name probably originated at the
time when Australia, land of the kangaroo, was the penal colony for the British
Empire." From "A Hog on Ice" by Charles Earle Funke (Harper & Row, New York, 1948):
"Nowadays, a kangaroo court is rarely heard of except in jails or similar institutions
where a mock court, independent of regular legal procedure, is set up by the inmates
to try a fellow prisoner for some alleged offense. Sometimes such courts are set
up merely for amusement, as diversions against the tedium of imprisonment, and
are then nothing but travesties of legal processes. Originally, however, these
irregular courts were resorted to in frontier communities, usually for the trial
and condemnation of persons committing offenses against the community. The source
of the name is mysterious, for it is American rather than Australian; I have not
found evidence of its use in Australia at any time. But as the date of origin
appears to coincide closely with the gold rush to California in 1849, the guess
may be hazarded that the name was in humorous allusion to the early purpose of
such courts, to try 'jumpers' who, resorting to desperate measures, seized the
mining claims of others. As the long arm of government had not yet reached the
'diggings,' the improvised courts were as irregular as those in today's jails,
and perhaps they were sometimes equally unfair."